JJUA04101U EU Intellectual Property
Law and Policy in an International Context

The growing importance of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs)
can hardly be overestimated. IPRs are recognized to be a crucial
contributor to economic growth and competitiveness within the EU
and on a global level. Consequently Intellectual Property Law (IPL)
is the focus of a great deal of legislative activity at national,
international and regional levels. It constitutes an increasingly
important and wide bundle of rules on various legal aspects of
human creativity, technological innovation and business.

This body of law has traditionally embraced protection of
copyrights, patents and trademarks. The domain of IPR's has
grown considerably in the last decades by extending their scope to
the protection of new works and technologies (like computer
programs, databases, videogames, biotechnologies) by both the
conferral of well-known entitlements (e.g. copyright) and the
creation of more specific, new types of rights (e.g. industrial
designs, database rights, access rights for digital items).

The idea of this course is based on the assumption that policies
and objectives which underlie all forms of today's IPR's
are set out at international and European levels, in spite of the
purely national dimension and validity of most of the exclusive
rights granted jurisdiction by jurisdiction.

Even if the idea of multi-level regulation of intellectual property
goes back to the end of the 19th century (when the first
international conventions for patent and copyright protection were
enacted), this area of law has been globalised more effectively as
of the establishment in 1994 of the World Trade Organisation (WTO)
and the related adoption of an international agreement (i.e. Trade
Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, known as
"TRIPS" Agreement). This "constitutional"
agreement strengthened the protection of the intellectual property
models dictated by the most advanced countries of the world and
fostered transnational cooperation and co-decision processes in
this field. At regional level, the EU has been and is still very
active. Apart from many decisions of the European Court of Justice
which considered and censored several market distortions caused by
disparate intellectual property laws across Europe, a number of
important directives and regulations also harmonised (or even
unified) national sub-systems. Moreover, outside the EU legal
framework, the European Patent Convention created a regional patent
system that has progressively reduced the importance and the appeal
of purely national systems and entitlements.

Focusing on EU intellectual property law in its wider international
context, this course aims to analyze the framework within which
national IP laws of member states operate and interact. The course
also seeks to discuss the most important policy issues and
arguments of relevance to the EU, both within the Union, and with
regard to its international relations on the global level.

In general, each segment of the course will first
present the legal framework and principles that are applicable to
the chosen topic. Although the focus is laid on the legal situation
within the EU this will require the consideration of three
perspectives. In applying the global perspective the rules of the
international conventions - for instance TRIPS - are shortly
described. The regional (EU) legal system is then considered on the
basis of the various directives and regulations and with regard to
decisions of the ECJ on e.g. parallel imports. The main features of
the European registration systems for patents (EPO), as well as
trade marks and designs (OHIM) are also examined. Emphasis is also
laid on recent legal developments, such as the continuing debate
over a future EU patent system. Second, the application of
these principles will be demonstrated and discussed in more detail
in the form of specific case studies. Wherever appropriate this
might also include a basic examination of specific technological
problems and/or a short comparative discussion of selected national
jurisdictions, including Denmark, further EC member states and i.e.
the U.S.. More specifically the structure of the course is
divided into the following segments addressing various topics:

- Present the content of the individual intellectual
property law disciplines and their interrelationship.
- Explain the basic legal rules concerning the protection
of an object, subject and contents within the individual
intellectual property law disciplines and explain and put into
perspective the interdisciplinary differencies and similarities.
- Analyse to what extent identified problems can be solved in
practise by using several different intellectual property law
disciplines and discuss the pros and cons connected to the handling
of the individual disciplines within the same problem area.
- Identify relevant problems and legal arguments within
intellectual property law on the basis of a complex material.
- Present specific problems within the context of
intellectual property law in a manner that demonstrates overview
and in-depth knowledge.
- Analyse complex problems within intellectual property
law, make an academically reasoned argument for different
solutions and make a critical weighing of the legal arguments.
- Combine different academic approaches in connection with the
analysis and make academically reasoned choices for the
solution.
- Present solutions and arguments in a systematic and
coherent manner that shows in-depth knowledge and understanding of
the problems within intellectual property law.
- Communicate and formulate her/his knowledge and
arguments professionally and linguistically correct and in a way
that is structured and coherent

Additional literature:
• Recent cases and other materials on various aspects of
international and European intellectual property laws (selected and
made available by the teacher; approximately 200 -300
pages

In accordance with the
on-going study reform this course follows a research based teaching
approach. It will include the use of a strong component of diverse
active learning pedagogic tools side by side with traditional legal
teaching methods. Student participation is highly recommended in
order to maximise the learning outcome

The courses in
"Intellectual Property Law in an International and EU
context" and "Immaterialret" are mutually exclusive.
It is therefore only possible to follow and be examined in one of
these two courses during the course of study

The students will be divided into groups. Each group is expected to
present cases which will subsequently be discussed by the
class.